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October 19, 2006

Game 7, Two Years Ago and Sticks

The Mets and Cardinals will play tonight in Queens for the right to face the Tigers in the World Series. And it will be the first game of this post-season that I'll actually sit down and watch.

Catching a bit of the later innings of Game 6 last night, I was surprised at how quiet the Mets fans were. Their team enjoyed a 4-0 lead, but they were clearly more apprehensive than excited. Was Fenway Park that quiet two years ago?

October 18, 2004. One of the greatest days of our Red Sox lives. Maybe the greatest. The Stolen Base That Started It All came just after midnight -- and less than 24 hours later, the Red Sox had won two extra-inning games from the Yankees -- almost 11 hours of baseball! -- both at Fenway Park, on the way to the most wonderful comeback in sports history.

17 comments:

I was at Fenway for Game 2 of the World Series, and I have to say that it was a fairly lifeless crowd. Of course it was very cold and the whole Victoria Snelgrove tragedy had just happened. Hard to say what the crowd would have been like without that hanging over the proceedings.

i watched all of it too. i remember it so well. every pitch, every moment i had my fingers crossed, hands clasped into a prayer, held up to my face, narely breathing, barely able to watch the tv. prolly the two most intense games of baseball i've ever watched. and the best stolen base EVER. right away i think we all shared a collective moment of inner knowing that it could go all the way, we weren't goin down like that. like in rocky V 'the russian is cut!!' lol, obscure reference, but i always think of it in sports-situations like that, when it just seems impossible to win and then one tiny thing turns the tide ;)

yeah mets fans were like shitting their pants in the 9th. haha, welcome to our (former) world! i'm glad we don't have a sound system like shea, and so many other parks, cause it just dominantes the whole atmosphere. plus, their music is kinda...lame? i only like it when they do the 'ole' chant. it's so nice to hear singing chants like you hear in football (soccer). i don't think we've ever heard that before at baseball games? not quite like that.

plus, blackjack, it was almost like the ALCS was our world series in a way? i mean, i remember hearing the most astounding racket for hours and hours after we beat the yankees, and i lived in cambridge at the time! car horns beeping, people howling in the streets. cheering. it was crazy.

still a pity about victoria. i think alot of people think about that when they think of that night.

Remember for a time it seemed like it might be the worst day of our Red Sox lives? Not again, not like this, not a sweep, it can't be happening... wait, it's not happening, we can do this, here we go... What a week. What a week.

I've been at several WS games in Fenway, and it always feels strange. Too many execs and celebrities, too many opposing team fans, too many rich people, not enough of the ramk and file, real Sox fans. In 1967, when I must have gone to about 30 home games, Game #1 of the Series just seemed weird...no energy, very unFenway-like. I asked my Mom, "Where is everybody?" which made her laugh because the park was packed, of course. But she knew exactly what I meant.

woti: when they let lurkers into the game threads, i left. i tried it for 2 games, but the sheer volume of posts was too much to wade through while trying to watch the game and keep score. i would refresh and there would be 30 posts ... after a single!

are you a member or are you one of the lurkers that drove me away? :>)

Redsock, I've been a 'registered' lurker since the ARod-to-Boston marathon post-03 season. I can't do game threads and watch the game at the same time (the walk-and-chew-gum malady, I guess). I usually scan them after the game for entertainment purposes. The whole 'prove your worthiness by posting in the game thread' policy pointed me in the other direction. It's still the most comprehensive site for Sox news and views, although these days you really need 'ignore' and BS filters.

game threads are the worst place to "prove yourself". i do not understand the rationale behind that. then everyone is trying to be clever -- and game threads are where everyone can vent and be idiotic.

if they had a lurker analysis folder that people could contribute to, that would make sense.

The chanting and singing at Japanese baseball games can definitely go too far. Each team has a supporters' section full of chanters and, uh, percussionists (hollow plastic items) -- if you know the clapping thing that's played over loudspeakers in the States games that sounds kind of like the vocal to the disco-era "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night" song, you know what I mean.

It's nice that it's spirited, but you do have learn to ignore all the noise. None of those quiet, contemplative stretches when you're at the ballpark in Japan that you get here.